ELITE DRAMA
Many Kampala–based elites have indulged in a rendition of bashing Dr. Kizza Besigye’s brand of politics and labeling his avid supporters as intolerant, radicals and people blinded to loyalty. I wish these elites could reflect on their own contribution to the change agenda in Uganda.
This anti-KB slur-train originated from an unscrupulous section of elites who turn to bashing Besigye to whitewash their tainted conscience and justify the "do not disturb" attitude toward change and matters of accountability. People who use uncharitable slurs to describe Besigye and his impassioned supporters should first pass credibility test. How less radical are they?
Recently, these sordid commentators enjoyed the two-second fame that accompanies celebrity bashing. In the process, they exposed their ulterior motives and hanged their gullibility on the wire. A recent such cynical attacks in the media cautioned people to flee town from an advancing KB’s radicals.
Uganda is full of such jokers. These are elite who may be socially conscious and yet political adolescents and blinded by their morbid powerlessness. The ambivalence of such groups always resulted in betraying the change agenda. In fact, most of the so-called Besigye radicals are average Ugandans whose sincerity and love for their country subordinate elite’s parochial pursuit for affluence. This group threatens the marginal elite for their uncompromising resolve for change in the socio-political environment.
In the contrary, it is a fact that traditional Besigye-bashing party are known for their propensity towards brown envelops and affluence. They could not gain rent from status quo without excelling in this enterprise.
Incidentally, our elites have remained indifferent to calls for change. Instead, this group scorns change agents while sitting on their hands on top of the fence. When the call for action beckons at them, they quickly flush the “Do Not Disturb” sign at change agents.
Uganda is weary of the monopoly of Museveni and it only debases us for an elite nation we are, to exist in three decades of a one “visionary” rule. The elite should be debating the requirements of the change process and materialising a post-Museveni Uganda instead of demoralising change agents. Unfortunately, you find these elites too engrossed in their narcissistic mindset to see the public utility of such efforts.
The people’s president, Dr. Besgye has built for himself a reputation that attracts trust and he has been reliable through endurance and self-sacrifice against tyranny. Many of the elites have benefited from political spaces that the regime has unwittingly conceded due to KB’s activism.
However, the elites will not fight constraining laws like POMA but Besigye. Instead, they are critical of Besigye while unbothered about the collapse of public institutions. In fact, their opportunistic posturing is to conspire towards collapsing these institutions.
The ballot, prayers, and compliance shall not defeat a three-decade establishment of Museveni’s system of repression. This realization is the cause of the fault line between defiance and compliance that has emerged in FDC. These ideological positions have merits, and should face the rigors of sober contemplation and testing without throwing each side in the greasy sink.
Lastly, the KB attacks are not value free. First, it serves the state agenda to dislodge KB from the body politics of opposition in Uganda for Museveni to obliterate opposition by 2021. Mr. Tamale Mirundi recently called that “renting the minds of the elites in opponents”. Second, whenever change is about to occur, the forces of inertia emerges, complete with its torque. The closer the change is, the stiffer the resistance. Third, our unpredictable and unreliable elites who treat life as mere theatricals tend to resist change the most. They claim a level of sophistication upon which to frown upon the inconveniences of change and change processes. This lot remains conveniently unconscious of the widespread social inequalities and the political undercurrents that have radically transformed our society from a progressive, liberated and optimistic nation into a den for thieves, doom and pessimism.
END
No comments:
Post a Comment